Metz, Dasher, FACS

Toronto noise-rock outfit METZ play an evolved post-hardcore style that both roars with sheer volume and creates considerably dense textures for a three-piece. While their first two albums seemed to focus on that thick wall of sound—something behind which is too easy to hide if you let yourself—some of the material from their third, Strange Peace, seems to open up a little more, showcasing the deft songwriting underneath the chaos. On the track "Cellophane," METZ rely a little less on (but still use) angular guitar lines backed by thick distortion, and open up a space for fuzzed-out vocal harmonies, counter melodies, time changes, and lumbering but swinging drums. Dasher, a noisy post-hardcore project out of Bloomington, Indiana, play here as well as Chicago's minimal post-punk trio FACS. —Emili Earhart